Project Veritas founder O'Keefe calls for action

By Brian Earlybearly@seacoastonline.com

Friday

Mar 18, 2016 at 4:22 PMMar 21, 2016 at 3:54 PM

GREENLAND — The person who released videos purportedly showing voting fraud during the New Hampshire presidential primary last month urged those at a breakfast on Friday to confront their elected leaders and show them the facts of the fraud to ensure criminal prosecution.

James O’Keefe, founder and president of Project Veritas, was the keynote speaker at an event sponsored by the Seacoast Republican Women at the Portsmouth Country Club.

His talk comes a day after he gave a hard drive of what he said was unedited film footage taken by members of Project Veritas taken during the presidential primary to Gov. Maggie Hassan’s office. The footage had been requested by the state attorney general’s office, which is investigating possible election fraud.

As O’Keefe left Hassan’s office, he was served with a subpoena by Attorney General Investigator Richard Tracy that O’Keefe said was to turn over his footage. The encounter was captured on video by Project Veritas and other media. In the video, O’Keefe asks Tracy if the people in the video will be served with subpoenas as well. Tracy said it depends on the investigation.

“Every time I come (to New Hampshire), there is some government agent who is trying to give me a hard time,” O’Keefe told the group in Greenland.

William Hinkle, Hassan’s spokesman, said in an email on Friday that the governor “believes anyone who commits voter fraud should be prosecuted, and the governor's office has provided the footage that was dropped off yesterday to the attorney general's office, which has an ongoing investigation into the alleged violations from the primary.”

Assistant Attorney General Stephen LaBonte confirmed he received the hard drive and said the contents will be reviewed next week for evidence of voter fraud.

“If what they provided was copy of full footage, they’ve provided something that we may be able to use in this investigation,” LaBonte said.

Project Veritas has released three videos since the primary that shows confusion by poll workers regarding how long a person has to live in the state before they can vote, as well as showing Democratic presidential candidate Bernie Sanders' staffers allegedly using the campaign office as their domicile voting location, and members of the Australian Labor party working on the Sanders campaign who vandalized Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump’s signs.

One video shows discussions of campaign field director Hugo Palma Jr. telling an undercover Project Veritas reporter he used the campaign office instead of where he was staying as his domicile address in Warner.

The New Hampshire Union Leader reported last month that Manchester City Clerk Matt Normand forwarded the allegations of voter fraud to the attorney general's office.

O’Keefe said after dropping video footage to the governor’s office, he spoke with Secretary of State William Gardner about the alleged voting fraud. O’Keefe said he asked if Gardner was going to prosecute voter fraud with the evidence he presented to him.

"(Gardner) did not want to commit either way,” O’Keefe said.

Gardner said in a phone call Friday afternoon it would be the attorney general’s office that would investigate and file charges. But he disagrees the office turns a blind eye to voter fraud.

“We have had at least one prosecuted case of voter fraud in every single state election going back to the late '90s,” Gardner said. These are mostly people who voted twice in different locations or used someone else’s name rather than their own.

O’Keefe said they did the undercover videos at the polls because he had heard the attorney general’s office had sent a memo to poll workers that no voter was to be turned away.

“I thought, let’s put this to the test,” he said.

Sections of the first video show clips from polling locations in southern New Hampshire, including some those in Portsmouth and Newmarket.

One video shows Portsmouth Registrar at Large Barbara Ward speaking with an undercover person from Project Veritas.

“Basically, what we’ve been told by the attorney general is that if you’re willing to sign this (domicile affidavit), you can vote here today. Because we can’t do anything about this,” Ward said in the video. “You’ve admitted to us that you don’t actually live here … that puts us in a more difficult situation. If you feel comfortable doing this, this would be your call. I don’t want to deny anybody the right to vote. ... I can’t stop you.”

Ward said last month the clip was edited and did not show the full conversation.

“We really investigated it,” she said. “I went all the way to the top to make sure I was doing the right thing.”

Ward said she and others spent a long time with the woman reviewing the law and asking where she lived, including having the woman read the definition of a domicile. She also contacted the attorney general’s office and consulted with the ward moderator.

Ward said she told the woman it was her choice to sign the affidavit, but she assured her the secretary of state and attorney general offices would follow up with her. Ward said if the woman signed the affidavit, she was prepared to file a complaint about possible voter fraud. In the end, Ward said the woman decided to leave.

O’Keefe said they have undercover reporters working nationwide and within the state. He showed a screenshot of a video showing Hassan that appeared to be taken without her knowledge.

“We have people undercover right now, and they are exposing and they’re infiltrating,” he said. “Stay tuned, because there is always another video around the corner."

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